Someone brought a fellow gardener, introduced to us as a Master Gardener, out to see our garden, thinking that since we both are absorbed in the cultivation of earth we should get along great. Unfortunately he sneered at my companion-planted garden rows and the huge number of tomato plants I’m growing – one row to…
Category: Organic Gardening
Bread, From Seed
“Our bread doesn’t shine like that,” said Cordelia. “That is the pity of it,” said the peasant woman. “What makes yours shine?” asked Cordelia. “The sun in the wheat,” said the peasant woman. -The Shining Loaf by Isabel Wyatt In January this year I planted four kinds of hulless barley, the kind that is easiest…
2017-2018 Lettuce Trials
You will have to bear with me for this post, if you aren’t also a gardening nerd, but i am so excited to write up the results of the lettuce trials from the fall/ winter season! I grew 15 kinds of open-pollinated lettuce, some were varieties I know I like and always grow, but most…
Blooming
Since the first frost that killed the last of the summer zinnias, there have been no flowers in my garden. In the fall I seeded snap dragons, chrysanthemums, linaria, and poppies. They have grown slowly between the hard frosts, at least bringing the green of plant life to the empty flower beds, but no flowers, …
Garden Love
I love my winter garden right now. It is a place of brilliant color, where all the cares of the world fall away in the midst of the rows of singing green. These plants know me, they have known me since the whole of their being rattled around in my palm as I sowed seeds…
Roasted Radishes, 3 Different Ways
I guess it’s cold when you turn the tap on in the morning, and you get a cup of ice, and that’s only after it’s had some time to thaw. In some ways it’s hardship out here in the cold, but at the same time i feel much stronger and healthier than when we lived…
Building A Garden
I love, more than anything else about gardening, watching the garden grow. Even before the uncertainty of putting small seeds into earth, and waiting, there is the dreaming, where long straight rows of vigorous vegetables grow in the fertile imagination. I’ve tried different gardening methods over my seasons of gardening in the past 10 years, …
The Mid-Summer Garden
It is a true law of nature that when things are at their peak of vibrancy, they are just about to begin to decline. Here we are at a point of mid summer – not solar midsummer, but the middle of the season of summer, when bugs, heat, and frequent rains…
A Garden Interview With Tom Wootton
I recently met Tom Wootton at a Grow Gainesville meeting, and was so excited to meet another person who has actually read Masanobu Fukuoka’s book, One-Straw Revolution, (so many of my non-garden friends sort of glaze over when I talk about this book) and has been putting ideas into practice! We connected over a…
Lost In The Garden Creamed Corn
I don’t take gentle, evening strolls through the garden, admiring the neat rows. I’m not that kind of gardener. Sometimes I wish I was, but then I get too busy with the dairy animals in June, the peak cream season, and if we are still in no want of vegetables to fill the table,…
In The Garden: Tomatoes and Sweet Corn
Finally something other than squash and cucumbers in the garden! The sweet corn is ready! I have missed sweet corn fresh from the garden! I haven’t planted any for the past couple of years. I have to get it in early if I am going to plant it, so…
In The Garden: The Zucchini Has Escaped
I love the early summer garden, before the pests, heavy rain storms, and incredible heat set in. The garden is easy and productive now, and the weeds and bugs feel under control. However, productivity CAN have some drawbacks! We were gone at the Florida Folk Festival over the weekend, and in only a few…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 